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Billy Sunday, a popular professional baseball player for the Chicago White Stockings, came to the mission in 1886. He first heard the gospel from the mission Gospel Wagon on the corner of State and Van Buren. He visited the mission that night and liked what he heard and one night Billy publicly accepted Christ as Lord and Savior. He became an eager Bible student and gave his testimony frequently at the mission. Billy learned his first lessons in giving the invitation and in talking man to man with a sinner, explaining the steps to salvation. Later, after turning down a lucrative offer to continue his baseball career, Billy Sunday became a world renowned evangelist.
When Col. Clarke died in 1892, mission convert Harry Monroe took over the helm, with Sarah Clarke remaining as the mission mother. Harry Monroe came to Chicago after being released in Detroit from a counterfeiting charge. He wandered into Pacific Garden Mission and was approached by Col. Clarke at the end of the service. Monroe responded to the Savior and his life was changed. Soon after, Harry was given charge of the song services and helped bring the mission hall alive with glad Gospel songs.
Monroe was a master at soul-winning, both in personally pointing individuals to the Lamb of God, and in calling out to those attending the mission's Gospel meetings. He had also introduced the idea of the Gospel Wagon during Col. Clarkes days. From the horse-drawn wagon, workers preached, gave testimonies and sang the Gospel to people on the street. It was during Harry Monroe's leadership as superintendent that Mel Trotter came to the mission.
Mel Trotter was a helpless drunk on his way to the murky waters of Lake Michigan. He had given up on any hope of change and was going to take his life. But a friendly invitation from a doorman to come into the Pacific Garden Mission to hear a gospel message was the beginning of a new life for Trotter. Superintendent Harry Monroe's own testimony touched Trotter's heart and he cried out to the Lord for forgiveness. Trotter's life was dramatically changed. He lost the thirst for alcohol and received complete victory.
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When Monroe died in 1912, Trotter served as general superintendent, overseeing Pacific Garden Mission until 1918. Pacific Garden Mission became the brightest spot in Chicago to Mel Trotter, who in 1905 was ordained to the Presbyterian ministry. Over the years Trotter helped found at least 67 other rescue missions across the country. As the years passed and Trotter preached the Gospel from coast to coast, people got to calling him "The happiest man in the world" and "The man who raves about Jesus." Not only is he one of the best-known converts of the Old Lighthouse, but when the going was rugged in the years of World War I, Mel Trotter himself kept the light burning brightly at Pacific Garden Mission.
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